almost
by endless.conflict
Summary: "…You were my first friend, you know," she says, as if they had been in the middle of light conversation. Leaning back, she cranes her face up to meet his gaze and before he can realize his guard is down again, they have already stared at each other a few seconds too long.


_'Hello, there. My name is Howl.'_  
_'Yeah? Well, I'm the Avatar!'_  
_'Nice to meet you, Korra.' _

I was her first friend.

It is early afternoon, and a rather tiny Korra stomps down the hallway in the west corridor. Her pout can be spotted from miles away, and it is Howl that notices. Naturally, he follows; he moves quickly with ease, makes a turn where she disappears and comes to a stop when he finds her glaring out the window.

**"…Is something wrong, Korra?"** The Sentry asks, and he notices the condensed fog that creeps against the window when she huffs.

**"I wanna go home!"**

A pause.

Howl kneels down to meet her level, swiping the cape away from his knees as he bends, and cranes his head to see half her scorn. He knows there is nothing he can say to fix the way her heart aches for her Mother and Father, but he knows he has to say something.

**"Me too."**

Korra jerks her head up to look at him, scrutinizing the features of his face for a sign of a lie. Familiarity is something foreign to the young Avatar, but after a moment letting his confession sink in, he notices that her frown softens.

He tells her all about his parents, who are far away in the Fire Nation, living humble lives. He tells her about the last time he's seen them, how he's spent most of his teen years in training. They keep in touch with letters, and sometimes by phone, but his duty - to Korra - prevents him from having the luxury of taking a week off from work.

When Korra proposes he leave so she can be 'free', he has no choice but to turn it down, and she punches him right in the jaw before storming off.

Howl nearly topples from the balance of his tip-toes and comes to a stand; the hand rubbing his jaw is also the one to hide the smile trying to break his bearing.

For just a kid, she can really pack a punch.

It's snowing pretty hard and Korra's trying to sneak out, as usual.

**"Do you ****_really_**** think it's such a smart idea to attempt a break-out during every snow storm?"**

With only a quarter of wall left to climb, Korra cranes her head back to stare at him, upside down. She grins,** "I almost got away, didn't I?"**

There's a mischievous glint in the Avatar's eye that twinkles even from where he stands, all the way at the bottom of the wall, and there's something about it that makes his stomach turn; he excuses it for stress.

The Sentry's displeasure is obvious, though it's mostly for himself and how she isn't supposed to get away with all of the things she does - like climbing a wall as tall as _Ba Sing Se's_ - but she does. When she slides back down to the bottom and advances over to him without a regret in her step, he feels a headache coming. **"…I guess."**

Later on, Korra is the one with the headache. He snerks underneath his helmet when she slaps it hard over his face. It's payback for him tattling to Master Katara, and Howl knows that, even without her saying so. He watches as she stomps passed him - obviously forcing herself to look as mad as she can, when she really isn't - and waits until she's retreated into a chamber before he composes himself and his uniform.

_Man,_ _she really packs a punch,_ he thinks, and it gives him something to muse about for the rest of his shift.

The day Korra becomes a woman by Southern Water Tribe standards, she has just one request.

**"Open the gate?"** She asks, grinning from ear to ear before she even finishes the question. He looks down at her from the watch tower with a perked brow, half-wondering what makes her think he'd just willingly open the gate… and half-wondering why she's even bothering to ask when she's just gonna sneak out for the_ 6th - 7th (?)_ time this week.

When he doesn't reply, Korra gestures for Naga to look up at him as if she's some adorable polar-pup. The corners of his mouth turn downward._**"Pleeeease,"**_ she chimes, and Naga barks.

**"I'm a woman now!"**

_This is only because it's her birthday,_ he tells himself, when he finally, inevitably, gives in.

Howl's habitual sigh is drowned out by the echo of her cheer as she gets smaller in the distance, disappearing into the gleam of the setting sun from the crack of the gate. There are only a few moments that he can see her gallop across the vast landscape of ice and snow, before she disappears from view completely.

When Korra returns an hour later, the Sentry is relieved. His heart is hammering even by the time Korra unsaddles Naga and climbs the watch tower to reach him.

**_"Wh-"_** His breath leaves him when she grapples him into a hug.

**"Thanks for giving me the second to best birthday present, Howl." **

_'—…'_ This time, he doesn't complain about fraternization. He doesn't complain about being lifted off the floor from her infamous bone-crushing embrace. Her words start a collision of questions in his head, distracting his guard. By the time he realizes they've stared at each other a few seconds too long, he turns away. **"You're welcome,"** he says, almost failing to sound reserved.

For the rest of the day, long after the moon has replaced the sun, Howl stares at the closed gate, wondering if the_ 'best birthday present'_ resided somewhere on the other side.

Thinking of the answer hurts, so he imagines he's watching Korra - nothing less of a woman, today - come through the gates all over again.

He remembers her standing up here in this tower, how close they had been. How different he felt, or rather - _more_ different he felt - than all the times before.

But most of all, he remembers her eyes…

_She's beautiful,_ he confesses.

Nobody is around to hear it.

It's snowing, again.

This time Korra is already out of the compound, and Howl knows.

It's been a long time since he's tried to stop her from leaving on days like this. After the day of her birthday, he had always let her go when she wanted to leave.

…It was their secret. For her, it was going beyond the gate; for Howl, it was listening to his heart and not his duty.

The way Korra smiles when she comes back to him reminds him that it's worth it.

The cliff is always where the Avatar comes when she needs to think.

Korra turns her head at the sound of a crunch, and it is Howl.

He closes the gap between them and stops just behind her slumped shoulder. The Sentry looks off into the distance, not at her, and focuses on something - _anything_ - but the way she looks right now.

**"…You were my first friend, you know,"** she says, as if they had been in the middle of light conversation. Leaning back, she cranes her face up to meet his gaze and before he can realize his guard is down again, they have already stared at each other a few seconds too long.

Without thinking, Howl bends down and kisses her right there on the edge of the cliff. When he pulls away to breathe again, he's dizzy as if his knees will give out.

Korra stands to her feet and literally lunges at Howl so hard that their lips collide and for the first time in his life, he responds to her with a force of his own, only it is passion rather than punches and she is not the Avatar and he is not a White Lotus Sentry. He is Howl and she is Korra and _this_, he thinks, is what he's wanted all this time.

They leave the cliff behind them, Korra dragging him back to the compound, his hand in hers. When he opens his mouth to ask about their fleeting moment of intimacy, she is already ahead of him and out of reach. Then, from nowhere, a snowball smacks into his forehead.** "Got ya!"** the familiar voice calls, and then Korra slips inside.

It barely even phases him.

Remembering the kiss makes his lips tingle and,_ man, that woman really packs a punch,_ is all he can think.

When Korra leaves, he doesn't know.

When the sun peaks over the glaciers of the Southern Water Tribe, he shows up for his post and she is already gone.

It's snowing.

It's snowing and Howl is sitting in the watch tower, where she hugged him, where they stared at each other a few seconds too long, just as they had at the cliff, where he kissed her and she kissed him and their hands fit together all the way to their walk back to the compound. Howl stares at the gate until the sun goes down.

Could she have loved someone like him…?

Thinking of Korra makes his heart ache in his chest, yet, there's something familiar about the hit.

_Man,_ he thinks, as he waits for the sun to retire below the horizon,_ she really does pack a punch._


End file.
